US Ambassador Christopher Hill’s regret for the victims of the bombing of the RTS building is not going to change US attitude towards the 1990s wars or towards Serbia, Republika Srpska and the Serbs in general, is the opinion of historian Aleksandar Raković.

Commenting on Hill’s statement that he “regrets the loss of lives of the people who were killed while doing their job” and that he “hopes that such events from the USA-Serbia bad relations era will never happen again”, Raković says there is no doubt that Hill’s messages during his visit to RTS show his humanity, but will fundamentally change nothing.

“The question is whether the USA has shown remorse for that particular act. This statement may be a personal act, but not America’s remorse, because it has not shown any remorse or regret for breaking the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) or bombing it in 1999,” Raković told SRNA.

Recalling that many innocent civilians were killed in the 1999 NATO bombing, including 16 RTS staff, Raković pointed out that he does not see that the US attitude towards those events has changed, just as the US policy towards the Serbs has not changed.

“I don’t see that Washington’s attitude will change for another ten years, i.e. as long as the generation of politicians who were destroying the SFRY first, and then the FRY, is active. As long as the current US President Joseph Biden, the Clintons, and Ambassador Hill himself are present, I see no change in the US policy towards Serbia, Republika Srpska and the Serbs in general”, stressed Raković.

Ambassador Hill visited RTS yesterday, including the part of the building that was bombed by NATO on the night of April 22-23, 1999, killing 16 staff who were at work.

“First of all, I would like to express my regret for the loss of lives of the people who did their work here in this studio. This reminds me of a sad era – the era of bad relations between Serbia and the USA and NATO member states, but I hope that it is an era the people can remember trying to find a better era, better relations with these countries and I hope we will never see something like this ever again,” Hill told RTS.